International studio (16.1902)

Contemporary Japanese Art

^■'ginal efforts and enforce imitation of old works.
thus naturally lost touch with the growing needs
new Japanese life. The society is now known
s the Bijitsu-kiokai, and holds bi-annual exhibi-
ts at Uyeno.
(2) The Western School. — The influence of
VVe;
the

estern art upon Japanese art was felt early in

seventeenth century, as is to be seen in the
v°rks of Yeitoku and Sanraku. Under the Toku-
?awas it was not only Shibu-kohan and Oado who
tated the Dutch, but even Okio and Kazan at
llai6s experimented in that style. The Meiji era,
lch so boldly essayed to adopt European life
tnners, and heartily condemned the native
fstoms as barbarous, also rejected the national
J as unworthy of the name of art. The first
p°Vernnient School of Fine Arts (attached to the
lege of Engineering) was conducted by Italian
iQ lr*ters and sculptors. It was closed in 1883,
1' u Severai associations and schools were estab-
eh on similar lines. Many students of art
th^ t0 in Paris, Munich, and Italy. In
Or^ PUblic schools instruction in drawing was at
hrne all given by the foreign method. In
\v ^ tbe study °f foreign painting and sculpture
^as added to the Government Art School at
yen°, an(j nQw h0i<qing a prominent place
' As Japan becomes more and more imbued
0j.. Western ideas, Western art will hold a place

lr|cre;

■asmg prominence.

c The New School.—Dissatisfied with the ultra-
preSerVat'Srn *be Cla.ssic School, yet hoping to
erve the best traditions of Japanese art, and
entfng the imitation of Western technique in its
bet ret^’ a new movement came to assert itself
een the two opposite schools. The peculiar
acl ^ of Japanese art and the possibilities of
aPting itself to modern life and industry were
erns which the New School ventured to solve.
Ja S ^aPanese art a thing of the past, or could the
'vhi]atleSe art ^eiji preserve its own integrity
to T ltlabibing modern notions and adapting itself
etic S new JaPanese life ? The movement was
^ged in its efforts by accomplished Western
t)r tl0lSseurs, among whom we may mention
I) ’ ^agner,. Mr. Fenollosa, Captain Brinkley,
tnan '^nderson, Mr. Conder, Dr. Bigelow, and
vie\ ^ .°''^ers- A small club was started with this
pj ln 1882, in which the late Kano Hogai,
\yS ^oto Gaho, the late Kobayashi Yeitaku,
\ ^Uabe Seitei, Suzuki Kason, Shimomura
an, and even the aged Zeshin co-operated.
^4 the attention of the Educational Board
called to the new movement, and a committee

was appointed to report upon the state of art
education in public schools, which decided in
favour of Japanese drawing, especially in connec-
tion with the applied arts and decorative industrial
designs.
A few years later, commissioners were sent
abroad to report on the art institutions in Europe
and America. After their return the Government
established the Tokio Bijitsu Gakko (Tokio School
of Fine Art) in 1889. The course of instruction
included painting, sculpture in wood and ivory,
metal work, bronze casting, lacquer work, and
decorative design—all taught in the Japanese
style, though the students were also required to
study perspective, anatomy and modern notions of
science, especially in reference to industrial design.
The object was to develop Japanese art upon its
own lines. The professors included men like
Hashimoto Gaho, Shimomura Kanzan, Yokoyama
Taikan, Kawabata Giokusho, and Yarnana Kangi, in
painting; the late Kano Natsuo, Okabe Kakuya,
Urumo Shomin, in metal work; the late Ogawa
Shomin, Rokkaku Shisui and Kawanabe Icho, in
lacquer; Okazaki Sessei, Ishikawa Koyo and
Oshima Jowun, in bronze; Takamura Kowun,
Nino Kosetsu and Yamada Kisai, in sculpture;
Kawasaki Chitora and Mayeda Kosetsu, in
design.
In 1896 the Government ordered the addition
of courses of European painting and sculpture in
the School. Since then differences of opinion
have arisen concerning the School management,
chiefly in regard to the part that Western methods
should play in the curriculum, which led to a final
rupture in 1896, and ended in the resignation of
Okakura, Gaho, Kanzan, Taikan, Kakuya, Shisui,
Sessei, Koyo, Jowun, Kodetsu, Chitora, Kosetsu
and others, and to their establishing a private art
institute, called Nippon Bijitsu-in, in the same
year.
The Uyeno School since then has devoted itself
mainly to the Western School, of which the faculty
has been greatly augmented. Those professors of
the national style who remained after the rupture
still follow the former method of instruction, but
the students in the course have greatly diminished,
and have joined the Bijitsu-in. Among the remain-
ing professors of the Japanese style, Mr. Kawabata
Giokusho of the Shigo School of Painting, Mr.
Urumo Shomin, a rare worker in metal, of the
Mito School, Mr. Takamura Kowun, a sculptor in
wood, who, with his master, Towun, initiated the
realistic style in wood-carving, may be said to be
the leading artists.

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